PART 2 OF 4: Cross-Specialty Ownership Rules Which licensed professionals can co-own a practice, and which cannot. The question of who may co-own a multi-specialty practice is governed by specific California rules, and getting it wrong can invalidate the structure. The permissibility of a given...
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Structuring Multi-Specialty Healthcare Practices | Part 1: The Appeal and the Threshold Questions
PART 1 OF 4: The Appeal and the Threshold Questions Why practices combine specialties, and what to settle before they do. Combining multiple specialties under one practice can offer real advantages, from coordinated patient care to shared overhead and stronger negotiating position. It also intr...
Buy-Sell Agreements for Healthcare Practices | Part 4: Drafting and Maintaining the Agreement
PART 4 OF 4: Drafting and Maintaining the Agreement Getting the document right and keeping it current. A buy-sell agreement is only as good as its drafting and only as useful as it is current. An agreement that is poorly drafted, or that no longer reflects the practice, can fail when invoked. T...
Buy-Sell Agreements for Healthcare Practices | Part 3: Valuation and Funding
PART 3 OF 4: Valuation and Funding Setting the price of a departing interest and paying for it. Two questions determine whether a buy-sell works in practice: how a departing owner's interest is valued, and how the buyout is funded. An agreement that specifies a buyout but leaves these unresolve...
Buy-Sell Agreements for Healthcare Practices | Part 2: The Triggering Events
PART 2 OF 4: The Triggering Events The departures a buy-sell agreement must anticipate. A buy-sell agreement is built around triggering events, the circumstances that cause an owner's interest to be bought or sold. Each type of departure will raise different concerns and calls for different ter...
Buy-Sell Agreements for Healthcare Practices | Part 1: What a Buy-Sell Agreement Does
PART 1 OF 4: What a Buy-Sell Agreement Does The plan every co-owned practice needs before it needs it. A buy-sell agreement governs what happens to a co-owner's interest in a practice when that owner leaves, for any reason. Without one, the departure of an owner can throw a practice into uncert...
Succession Planning for Healthcare Practice Owners | Part 3: Preparing the Practice
PART 3 OF 4: Preparing the Practice Building the value and readiness a successful transition requires. Whatever path a succession takes, the practice must be prepared for it. A practice that's well-run, financially transparent, and not wholly dependent on the departing owner transitions far mor...
Succession Planning for Healthcare Practice Owners | Part 2: The Paths a Succession Can Take
PART 2 OF 4: The Paths a Succession Can Take The main ways to hand a practice forward. Succession is not one path but several, and the right one depends on the practice, the owner's goals, and who's available to take over. Understanding your options lets you as an owner choose the route that be...
Succession Planning for Healthcare Practice Owners | Part 1: Why Succession Planning Matters
PART 1 OF 4: Why Succession Planning Matters The cost of not planning, and when to begin. Succession planning is easy to postpone, because the departure it addresses often feels distant. Yet the owners who fare best are those who plan early, and the ones who struggle are frequently those who wa...
Practice Ownership Models in California | Part 4: Choosing the Right Model
PART 4 OF 4: Choosing the Right Model A framework for selecting and evolving your ownership model. With the models understood, the task is choosing the one that fits a provider's goals and circumstances, and recognizing when it is time to change. The right model is personal, depending on what a...
Practice Ownership Models in California | Part 3: Investor-Backed and Management Models
PART 3 OF 4: Investor-Backed and Management Models How outside capital participates while ownership stays with providers. Investor-backed and management-supported models have grown rapidly in healthcare, reshaping how many practices are owned and operated. Because California limits practice own...
Practice Ownership Models in California | Part 2: Solo, Group, and Employed Models Compared
PART 2 OF 4: Solo, Group, and Employed Models Compared The tradeoffs among the most common arrangements. For most providers, the practical choice is among owning solo, joining or forming a group, or being employed. Each offers a different balance of control, income, risk, and lifestyle. This pa...
Practice Ownership Models in California | Part 1: The Landscape of Ownership Models
PART 1 OF 4: The Landscape of Ownership Models The main ways a California healthcare practice can be owned. Before choosing how to own or join a practice, providers benefit from seeing the full range of models available and how they differ. California's rules on practice ownership shape this la...
Adding Partners to a Medical or Dental Practice | Part 4: Bringing the Partner In Smoothly
PART 4 OF 4: Bringing the Partner In Smoothly Making the transition to shared ownership work. Executing the documents is not the end of adding a partner. The transition to shared ownership changes how the practice is run and how the owners relate to one another, and managing that shift well is ...
Adding Partners to a Medical or Dental Practice | Part 3: The Agreements That Govern Partnership
PART 3 OF 4: The Agreements That Govern Partnership The documents that define how co-owners work together. A partnership lives in its governing documents. The agreements executed when a partner joins define ownership, control, compensation, and what happens when an owner eventually leaves, and ...
Adding Partners to a Medical or Dental Practice | Part 2: Valuing and Structuring the Buy-In
PART 2 OF 4: Valuing and Structuring the Buy-In How the incoming partner's stake is priced and paid for. Once a practice decides to add a partner, the central question becomes what the partner will pay for their ownership stake and how. The buy-in valuation is frequently the most sensitive part...
Adding Partners to a Medical or Dental Practice | Part 1: Deciding Whether and When to Add a Partner
PART 1 OF 4: Deciding Whether and When to Add a Partner The considerations that come before any offer is made - The decision to add a partner will often be driven by either an associate who has earned a path to ownership, a need to share the burdens of running a practice, or a plan for eventual...
Professional Corporations vs. LLCs for Healthcare Providers: Part 3
PART 3 OF 3: Structuring Around the Restriction Where an LLC can fit, and how to choose and form correctly. The unavailability of the LLC for clinical practice does not mean the LLC has no place in a healthcare provider's plans. Understanding where each form fits, and how they can work together...
Professional Corporations vs. LLCs for Healthcare Providers: Part 2
PART 2 OF 3: The Professional Corporation Up Close The structure California provides for licensed practice, and what it requires. Since an LLC is generally off the table, the professional corporation is the structure that takes its place for most California medical and dental practices. It is t...
Professional Corporations vs. LLCs for Healthcare Providers: Part 1
PART 1 OF 3: Why the LLC Is Off the Table The popular entity most healthcare providers cannot use, and the reasons why. The limited liability company has become the default choice for new businesses across nearly every industry, prized for its flexibility, simplicity, and liability protection. ...
Can Non-Physicians Own a Medical Practice in California?
Can Non-Physicians Own a Medical Practice in California? The answer is no, but there's more to the story. Why the answer is no California follows the Corporate Practice of Medicine doctrine, which holds that a medical practice must be owned and controlled by licensed physicians rather than b...
What Healthcare Providers Need to Know About MSOs: Part 4
PART 4 OF 4: How to Evaluate and Enter an MSO Arrangement A practical framework for providers considering an MSO. For a provider approached about an MSO, or considering forming one, the decision deserves the same diligence as any major commitment. A structured evaluation protects against the ri...
What Healthcare Providers Need to Know About MSOs: Part 3
PART 3 OF 4: The Benefits and the Risks What an MSO can offer a practice, and what to watch for. An MSO can bring real advantages to a practice, which is why the structure has become so widespread. It also carries risks that providers should weigh carefully before entering one. Understanding bo...
What Healthcare Providers Need to Know About MSOs: Part 2
PART 2 OF 4: The Management Services Agreement The contract that defines the relationship, and the terms that matter most. The relationship between a practice and its MSO lives in the management services agreement. This contract governs what services are provided, what the practice pays, and ho...
What Healthcare Providers Need to Know About MSOs: Part 1
A Legal Guide to Management Services Organizations in California Management services organizations have become central to how healthcare practices are run and financed, and providers are increasingly approached about them. This guide explains what an MSO is and does, the management services agreement that governs the relationship, the benefits and risks of the structure, and how to evaluate and enter an MSO arrangement.